Saturday, 17 March 2012

Dishing the dirt

This year I'm doing something new. I'm sterilising my pots and trays. It's one of those things that we all know we should do... Last time (about 10 years ago to be honest) I used Jeyes's Fluid -and boy did it STINK. A truly horrible experience. Never again. This time I've filled the trug with a solution of Milton Sterilising Fluid. This is what is used for sterilising baby feeding equipment. I recall spilling some on my clothes and it bleached them good. The smell is more like a public swimming pool, much better than the tar like smell of Jeye's. Everything gets a soak of a few hours in the trug and then a good scrub with that brush before being dried off. That should remove any dirt!

For anyone who thinks this is a boring topic... I have to agree. But boring can be the basis for all the excitement that follows.

I can't resist mentioning a reference to dirt that amuses me. Residents of the town of Wick in northern Scotland are proud to be known as "Dirty Wickers". Adopting the local parlance the Wick Heritage Centre proudly sells "Dirty Weeeker" T-shirts Why? First of all you have to be aware that the linguistic heritage in this area is more Norse than Scots or Anglo Saxon. The word "Dirdie" means (or used to mean) busy, industrious, hard working. Wick had a justifiable reputation as a centre of industry during the herring boom which thrived 100 years ago. A "dirdie" Wicker was a "true" Wicker and proud to be so. Times have changed but the language has yet to catch up!

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About Me

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Edinburgh allotment holder for 20 years. Still trying to master the skills. Married with four children. A keen home bread baker and photographer.